POYNTON swimmer Thomas Booth is harbouring Olympic ambitions after a great showing in the recent National Swimming Championships.

The 16-year-old brought two freestyle bronze medals back to his home in Easby Close.

His times of 53.2sec for the 100m and 1min 54.76sec in the 200m were enough to secure third places in the shorter races.

The Poynton High School student also received a gold medal, as a member of Bolton Metro Swimming Squad's victorious 4x100m relay team.

Booth narrowly missed out on a fourth freestyle medal at the ASA meeting at Ponds Forge, finishing just outside the 400m top three.

His achievements are even more impressive, given that he missed most of this year's training due to a bout of pneumonia in March.

Booth has competed in national tournaments before, having been second in the 1,500m event as a 13-year-old.

He has since elected to concentrate on the sport's shorter races, despite having an exceptional lung capacity and economical technique.

Booth's performance at the Sheffield venue has earned him a place in the prospective Olympic squad, a specialist team established with the London Olympic Games in mind.